Seattle Grace
by PagetPaulson
Summary: An intern and an attending.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N - Quotes are from Grey's Anatomy**

 **...**

Following the other interns through the hospital doors, Emily did her best to get her name tag back into place. She had been only a moment late to the first day of her program, and already she'd gotten a scolding from their superior. "A second too late can lose a life," he'd said, and Emily had bowed her head to get the other interns to stop their stares.

Seattle Grace was already a hell hole.

"This is where you will spend the next seven years of your life," Webber spoke up, causing Emily's head to turn. She watched as he opened the door for them and she and the rest of the interns stepped into the surgical room. Eyes moving from the table to the tray with extra scalpels, Emily could feel her heart racing.

"Only a few of you will survive," the doctor spoke, "some switching to easier specialties, some quitting because they find the pressure too great, and others," he stressed, looking at a few of the interns, "will be asked to leave."

The Korean woman beside Emily gave a nudge to her elbow. "Think he's the Nazi?"

Emily hid her smile until the doctor looked away. They'd all heard the stories of the residents at the hospital, they had to. Before they walked through the doors of that hospital they needed to know what they were getting themselves into.

"Get to the lockers," Webber said strongly, leading the young adults out of the surgical room and gesturing down the hall. "Change into your scrubs and you'll all get your assignments." When he saw them pause at the end of the hall, his hands curled into fists. "Now!"

The ambassador's daughter's body jolted and she rushed along with the others into the locker room.

"E.P?"

Emily looked up and noticed the Korean woman gesturing to the locker that had been assigned to her. "Thanks," she breathed, quickly stripping off her shirt and throwing on the blue scrub shirt hanging in her locker. "What's your name?"

"Cristina," she rushed out, stripping herself of her clothes just like the rest of the interns. "You?"

"Emily."

A younger student popped his head around the corner where his locker was and raised his hand. "I'm George."

Emily's head turned, smiling to the other intern as she slipped her shoes off. "Hi," she laughed, making sure to pick her name tag off of her shirt and clip it onto her scrubs.

"Interns!"

Slipping on her left sneaker, Emily was the first to run out of the room and out into the hallway.

"Hendricks, Smith, West, Reid and Morgan," Webber called. "To Dr. Heigl on floor four."

Emily kept her pace slow as she reached the end of the hallway, her eyes along with ten others who were waiting for their assignments. Putting her hair up, she watched as a nurse raced alongside a gurney from the ER toward the surgical wing.

"Prentiss," Webber boomed, "O'Malley, Stevens, Grey, Yang and Karev. Bailey's station, now."

The group of six followed the surgeon's gesture down the hall and quickly made their way toward the station, Yang hitting Emily's arm as they went. "The Nazi," she rushed out, her hand reaching out to hit George as well. "Bailey's the Nazi."

George's shoulders stiffened. "I pictured the Nazi to be a man," he gulped. "A big man."

"I pictured an old delusional man," Cristina laughed.

A young woman who looked the most familiar to the ambassador's daughter took in a breath. "I pictured the Nazi to be...well, a Nazi."

Emily gently shook her head to all of the chatter going on around her as they came to the end of the hallway. Their boss turned around to face them. She was exactly what Emily had pictured.

Before the resident surgeon could open her mouth to give the first instructions, a tall blond from the group took a step forward and held out her hand. "Hi Dr. Bailey, my name is Isobel Stevens, but everyone calls me Izzie."

Baily found herself glaring up to the new intern. "I have five rules, memorize them. Rule one: I already don't like you so there's no reason to suck up to me. It won't do you any good." She turned and gestured to everything she'd laid out on the nurse's desk. "Trauma protocol, phone list, pagers."

Emily and Cristina were the first to grab pager's from the station.

"Nurses will page you. You answer every page at a run. A RUN. That's rule two."

Following Bailey down the hallway, the interns sped up their pace.

"Your first shift starts now and will last forty-eight hours-"

"Forty-eight hours?"

Emily's eyes flickered over to George when Bailey stopped to glare back at them.

"You're interns," the doctor said strongly, eyeing the Irish intern before turning to continue down the hallway. "You're grunts, nobodies, the bottom of the surgical food chain. You run labs, write orders, work every second night until you drop and you don't complain. Letting you know right now, I don't care if your shifts last forty-eight hours."

George peeked over to the women in his group, making sure they weren't judging him the same way his boss was.

Gesturing to a few rooms they passed, Bailey sighed. "The on-call rooms, all attendees hog them so sleep whenever you can. This brings me to rule three," she said, raising her clipboard so they could all see her. "If I am sleeping, you do not wake me up unless your patient is actually dying. Rule four: the dying patient better not be dead when I get there. Not only will you have killed someone but you would have woken me up for no reason. I'm already not on your side, you don't want to make it worse. We clear?"

Both Emily and the blond she had recognized rose their hands the moment Bailey's pager went off. "Both of you?"

"You said five rules."

Bailey glared.

Straightening her shoulders, Emily nodded along with her fellow intern. "You said there were five rules but you only told us four."

They watched as the doctor looked at her beeper once more. "Rule five: when I move, you move." She grabbed her chart and immediately bolted down the hall. "Out of my way!"

Emily was the second to last in the line as they ran after their boss, and her hand did its best to stick out and shake the blonde's. "Emily."

"Meredith," she smiled, holding the door open for the raven haired woman.

As they ran toward the parking lot to reach the ambulance, Emily felt herself stop, her chest aching. His dark hair, the chin that had laid on her shoulder as they fell asleep, his blue eyes that had been the first of its kind she'd ever seen.

"Emily?"

She gulped, a strand of her dark hair falling in front of her eyes. "Derek."


	2. Chapter 2

Once the interns had helped Bailey with their first set of car crash victims, they circled around the first they'd gotten back to a steady heart rate.

"Ten milligrams of morphine, Emily."

The dark haired woman took the syringe handed to her and stuck the needle into the IV, her ears perking up as Bailey gave out orders while she finished injecting the morphine.

"Alright, time to separate. Cristina I want you on labs, George on patient workups. Meredith and Alex, go and get Katie downstairs for a CT." Looking to the ambassador's daughter, the doctor narrowed her gaze. "Emily, take Alison, the daughter, and get her an MRI."

When she didn't hear her name called, Izzie stepped forward. "What about me?"

Bailey handed a chart to the blond intern. "You're on rectal exams," she smiled, turning away from the wide eyed woman and walking away. "Find me when you're done!"

Emily let the nurse take her syringe as she slipped off her gloves, throwing them in the nearest trash can before stepping out into the hallway. "Alison Travis' chart please." Smiling at the nurse behind the desk who handed her the chart, the ambassador's daughter set her back against the desk and opened it up.

"Ten year old from the car crash?"

Her dark eyes flickered up to see a surgeon looking to her from a foot away. "Alison Travis," she nodded. "Dr. Burke?"

The man in dark blue scrubs felt his eyes widen. "Yes?"

"Emily Prentiss," she smiled, shaking his hand. "I've read all about you."

Burke's hand clenched around the younger woman's, his head tilting. "Emily Prentiss?"

Before the surgeon could make the connection, the brunette took her hand back. "You performed surgery on me at five years old," she grinned, remembering a younger version of his face just after she had woken up all those years ago.

Burke's eyes widened. "You were assaulted."

Gulping, she nodded, holding Alison's chart to her chest. "And you saved my life," she laughed. Looking down at the chart she held, the ambassador's daughter smiled. "I have to go, but it was great to see you."

He watched as she rushed down the hall and disappeared into a patient's room, and his cap in his hand crumpled under his touch.

"Alison?" she asked, smiling to the little girl in her bed. "Can you hear me?" She waited until those brown eyes opened and looked up to her. "Hi Alison, I'm going to be your doctor. My name is Emily."

The ten year old cleared her throat. "I'm Alison."

Emily grinned as she hooked the IV onto the hook on the hospital bed. "I know. I'm going to take you downstairs for a little bit, ok?"

"Why?"

"Well, the doctors need to take a picture of your brain."

Alison frowned as she was taken into the hallway. "Where's my mommy?"

"With the other doctors," Emily tried to smile, knowing the condition the mother was in.

"Where's my daddy?"

Pushing the button for the elevator, Emily checked the volume of the ten year old's IV. "Your daddy is filling out your paperwork but he's going to meet us downstairs."

"Is he ok?"

"He is," the intern smiled, making sure the young girl could see her. "Your daddy is just fine."

The ten year old did her best to turn her head so she could see the doctor as her bed was rolled into the elevator. "Are you going to have a baby?"

Emily did her best to keep her eyes from bugging out of her head. "I'm not," she denied softly, watching the elevator doors close. "Why?"

"My mommy was having a baby," Alison stated matter-of-factly. Blinking heavily, she looked to the elevators' steel doors. "He isn't here."

"Isn't here in the hospital?"

Alison's head shook softly on her pillow. "He had to go to heaven."

Emily let her lips curl between her teeth as the elevator dinged, and she wheeled the hospital bed into the hallway. "I'm sure he's very happy in heaven," Emily said with a small smile, and she brought the ten year old down toward neurology.

"Is this going to hurt?"

The intern's head shook as she parked the bed outside of the MRI room. "Not at all." She helped the patient sit up in her bed. "I'll be right back, ok? Stay here."

Emily took the girl's chart and headed into the office, her eyes on the prognosis they wanted to rule out for the ten year old. "Dr. Shepherd, I'm Dr. Prentiss. I have a patient for you."

Turning in his chair, the blue eyed doctor looked to the woman he had spent the night with, his lips curling into a smile. "Emily."

Her heart dropped.

 _Letting the dark haired man kiss beneath her ear, Emily bit her lip, pushing her chest up against his as she stripped herself of her shirt. "Name?"_

 _He pulled back, his breath blowing against her cheeks. "What?"_

 _"Name," she giggled, her head still spinning from all the alcohol she'd had. "What's your name?"_

 _The blue eyed man grinned. "Derek," he nodded, helping with her shirt so it was her bra pressing against him._

 _"Emily," she smiled back, her hands cupping around his neck to pull his lips back down to hers._

Giving herself a moment to catch her breath, the intern tried for a smile. "Hi."

Derek gave her his most charming smile. "Hi." When the younger woman faltered, he slowly stood from his seat. "You said you had a patient?"

"Right," she nodded, her arm almost shooting out to hand him the chart she held. "Alison Travis, she's a ten year old girl who was in a car crash with her parents."

Blue eyes slowly leaving hers, Derek let his hand brush over hers as he took the chart.

"We just need an MRI."

The surgeon watched as the brunette did her best to control her breathing, her chest barely moving as she stood before him. "Ok," he smiled. "Get her on the machine, if you can."

Emily was quick to nod her head and leave the room, shaking the weight of the prior night off of her shoulders before helping Alison from her bed. "Come on, sweetie," she smiled, walking by her side into the room. "Ok, so we're going to have you lay in this machine."

The ten year old looked wide eyed to the machine before her.

"You're going to be just fine," the intern promised her. Lifting her up, the brunette set the ten year old on the table. She took the clean pillow and set it on the tray, helping the patient lie down. "You have to be still, ok? Try your best not to move."

Alison's eyes flickered up to the older woman's. "Is that your husband?"

Emily's brow pinched, and her ears perked at a small noise at the other end of the room. Looking up, the dark eyed woman saw Derek with another doctor behind the window, their voices coming through the loudspeaker.

The microphone had been left on.

"No," she laughed gently, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "I'm not married, sweetie."

Alison gave a sleepy nod of the head.

Emily made sure to get the affirmative nod from Derek behind the window before she pressed the machine's start button. "I'm going to be right on the other side of the window, ok? If you need me you just call for me." Seeing Alison's eyes start to close, she smiled. "You can even fall asleep in there."

Waiting until she was fully in the machine, Emily walked back behind the window, smiling nervously to Derek and the other doctor standing beside him.

"We ready?"

Emily let her shoulders fall. "Ready."


	3. Chapter 3

"Did you know?"

George frowned as he sat down, Izzie finding the seat right next to him as she continued to scrub her hands with wet wipes. "What?"

Cristina turned her attention to Izzie. "Did you know?"

"I know that I'm never putting my fingers up an anus every again," she huffed. Throwing down the wet wipe, the blond looked up to see the dark haired woman almost glaring at her. "Wait, what?"

Leaning in, the Korean woman held tighter onto her apple. "Prentiss and Grey."

Izzie's head shook. "What about them?"

"They're both the children of the most famous surgeons," the intern stated dumbly. "Ellis Grey? Edgar Prentiss?"

Sitting down, Alex's eyes widened. "Those are Emily and Meredith's parents?"

Cristina huffed. "I knew those names sounded familiar."

"Imagine how much more they already know," Alex whispered wide eyed.

"So we're in this program with the children of one of the most well known surgeons and the top neurosurgeon in all of the Western United States?"

Cristina quickly shushed the group, sitting back in her chair as Meredith rounded the corner and sat herself down at the lunch table.

"I had this eighty year old man this morning," the blond groaned, setting her tray down. "After you left Alex, I had to go down to the ER and he peed everywhere."

George grimaced. "Peed?"

Meredith's eyes rolled. "And some ended up on me."

"Hope you washed your hands," Alex laughed uncomfortably.

Feeling the tension, the famous surgeon's daughter looked up and at the other interns, watching as all of their eyes averted from hers. "What?" She frowned as the girls in her group quickly took bites of their lunches. "What? What is it?"

Cristina looked around to the other interns. "You're Meredith Grey."

The blond felt herself flush, watching as everyone's eyes immediately shot to her. "And?"

"Grey. Meredith _Grey._ "

Meredith kept her composure. "Yes," she agreed, picking up her fork for the first time to stab a piece of pineapple she'd gotten in her fruit cup. "That is my name."

Before anyone else could open their mouth, their heads turned at the cafeteria doors slamming open and Emily running over to the table. "I need an intern."

"You're an intern," George pointed out.

"Alison Travis is bleeding in the brain," she rushed out, bending over slightly as she tried to breathe. "Dr. Shepherd," - she couldn't flinch at the use of his name - "told me to bring the first intern who knew possible complications of the bleeding and our surgery."

Meredith's hand was the first in the air. "Embolisms, strokes, seizures, possible swelling, coma, memory iss-"

Emily's hands waved for her to stop. "Good enough," she nodded. "We don't have time. Let's go."

Alex watched the two women run back through the cafeteria doors and disappeared. "Wow." He dropped his fork to the table and let his head shake. "The daughters of the two most famous surgeons on their first day and they're already scrubbing in."

Finishing washing her hands, the ambassador's daughter looked over to the other intern by her side. "Nervous?"

"A little," Meredith admitted, shaking her hands to dry them. "You?"

Emily's eyes moved from the blond beside her at the sink to the window before them, watching as the doctor she had slept with moved around the patient on the table.

"Emily?"

The brunette looked back to the other intern. "Sorry," she smiled. "Yeah, I'm nervous. You read and learn about these procedures for years in school but it's a lot different from actually doing them."

Meredith nodded in agreement, watching as the other intern turned to enter the operating room. "We'll do fine."

Emily wished she had the other woman's confidence as she stepped into the room with her mask tied and another surgeon put gloves on her hands.

"Prentiss," Derek called out, his eyes meeting hers as he smiled behind his mask. "Over here please." Watching as the blond intern slowly followed her in, the neurosurgeon nodded. "Dr. Grey, it's nice to meet you."

"You too, sir."

Emily kept her hands steady as she took the suction tool from a surgeon close by.

"Don't get too close to the brain or you'll injure it," the surgeon spoke quickly, cleaning out a clot he had found, "and don't stray too far or the blood will collect and this girl will die." He looked to the beautiful woman beside him and met her eyes. "Do you understand?"

Emily gently nodded her head, leaning in and sucking up the excess blood.

"Dr. Grey, I need you to keep an eye on her stats."

Watching the attending surgeon, Emily kept her hands steady on the tool. She could feel his body slowly grow closer to hers, his elbow almost bumping hers that she had to move back.

Two hours later, Emily was wiping the sweat from her brow and following Meredith out of the OR.

"You did really well."

Emily breathed out a laugh, leaning with the other intern against the nurse's station. "You too. Hell of a first day." Watching the blue eyed woman look to her, the ambassador's daughter let her shoulders slump. "So...Meredith Grey."

Meredith could feel her ponytail drooping as she looked to the other woman and nodded. "Emily Prentiss."

The brunette's lips rolled inward. "Yeah," she breathed.

"Congratulations."

Emily laughed, looking to the other intern with a grin. "You too." Hearing a familiar voice, the brown eyed woman saw the handsome man she'd spent her previous night with walk out of the OR and bringing Alison to the elevator, and she immediately stood straight. "I'll see you later."

Running past the other doctors in her way, the intern caught up to the elevator and squeezed through the space between the wall and door before it closed.

Derek looked amusedly to the heaving girl. "Hi."

"Hi," she breathed, holding a hand to her chest. "God, I need to work out." Catching her breath, Emily's eyes met Derek's. "I need to talk to you."

The surgeon slowly nodded his head.

Wanting to open her mouth, the intern fell silent. She could feel herself making a fool of herself as she opened her mouth a few more times to try and get any kind of word out.

"Well," Derek cut in, noticing the younger woman's hesitance, "I thought you did extremely well in the OR."

Emily could feel herself shrinking underneath his gaze.

"First day as a first year intern? You were amazing."

She gave a lick to her dry lips, hearing the ding of the elevator as they went down a floor, and she shook her head. "Why did you have me scrub in?"

Derek frowned.

"Is it because of last night?" she questioned him. "I promise you I didn't know who you were or what you did when we met, so this is not what I pictured my internship to be like. I don't want special treatment because we slept together."

The neurosurgeon's hand tightened around the edge of Alison's bed as he listened.

When the bings of the elevator began to move too quickly for Emily, she turned and stopped it from moving.

"Emily, I need to get her back to her room."

Emily immediately nodded her head. "This will only take a minute." Stepping forward, the intern placed her hands at the foot of the ten year old's bed. "I don't want you to think that I slept with you to scrub in. That would be pathetic," she breathed. "I didn't know, ok?" When the blue eyed man refused to answer her, Emily's head tilted. "Is it because of who my father is?"

Before the brunette could continue, Derek lifted his head. "Ok, now it's my turn."

The intern felt her shoulders stiffen.

"I had you scrub in because you were Alison's doctor," the surgeon said, watching as Emily's face changed. "You were there with me while she got her MRI, you were there with me when we saw her brain was bleeding so obviously I brought you with me into her surgery."

Emily felt her eyes soften as she looked into his.

Derek's lips slowly curled into a smile as he watched her listen. "I didn't know who you were either. I didn't know you were going to be an intern, and do you really think I did this because of who your father is? Do you not remember last night? I barely knew your name."

The brunette felt herself burst into laughter, her head bowing as she covered her eyes.

"You're going to be a good surgeon."

Emily's head lifted. "Thank you," she smiled softly. Turning, she pressed the elevator button and felt it start to move again.

"Are you sure you're not married?"

Both brunettes looked down to the ten year old at hearing the groggy words, Emily smiling at the little girl with the bandage wrapped around her head. "Hey there," she whispered. "How are you feeling?"

Alison almost pouted. "Where's my mom?"

"We're going to take you to her a little later," the intern nodded. They had gotten her mother stabilized. Alison still had both of her parents.

Derek watched as the woman he had been with the night before comforted her patient, and he watched as her eyes met his for the briefest moment before rolling Alison out of the elevator and back toward her room.

Seeing the new surgeon step off the elevator, Burke stood from the nurse's desk. "Dr. Shepherd."

"Dr. Burke." He walked over and shook the other man's hand. "It's nice to finally be able to talk to you."

Burke grinned. "You too. Your work is impressive."

Derek smiled back. "As is yours."

Gesturing to the room Emily brought her patient back into, the heart surgeon leaned back against the nurse's station. "Do you know who that is?"

"I do." He watched as the intern brushed Alison's hair back and sat down beside her bed, and Derek could feel his hand clenching. "Yes I do." _Now_ , he thought with a chuckle.


	4. Chapter 4

After a full week in the internship, those who were believed to be at the bottom of the surgical food chain had saved twenty-six lives in total. Cristina and Meredith had gotten to work on a family of boating accident victims, Alex on an Alzheimer's patient who had fallen down the stairs, George able to help a bus driver who had flown through the windshield and Emily helping Burke and Webber take the bullets from an injured officer's body.

Somehow Izzie had gotten the heart of a deer to restart.

Those were their big accomplishments for their first week.

Walking in to the locker room, Emily took down her hair and let the tie fall around her wrist. "Hey," she smiled to the other standing around the lockers. Her fingers massaged at the back of her head as she opened up her locker and took out her shoes. "Ready for the weekend?"

Alex shook his head. "I'm on call." He had been transferred to the ER on his second day, Dr. Roth who was in charge needed extra hands.

Emily grimaced. "Sorry."

"Anyone want to get dinner?" Meredith asked, changing out of her scrubs.

Cristina stole the soda from Alex's hands and took a big swig. "Sure," she nodded, leaning back against the lockers. "We can head out for a pizza then go back to study if you want to."

Another intern peeked around from the door of his locker. "Can I come?"

"Sure George," the blond smiled.

Letting her hair down from its clip, Izzie shot a look at the other blond in the room over her shoulder. "Do you mind if I come?" she asked with a tense smile. She had been begging the other young woman to have a room at her house, along with George, and without an answer yet she wasn't sure if Meredith would want to be so close to her just yet.

"Of course you can."

Izzie turned and shared a high five with the brunette man at her side.

"Emily," Cristina piped up, writing down her day's victories in a notebook she'd found in the ER, "you coming?"

The ambassador's daughter moved her dark hair behind her ears. "Yeah," she grinned. "I'd love to. What were you guys thinking?"

"Italian?" Meredith offered.

The Korean of the group was quick to shake her head. "Indian."

George hid his grimace behind his locker door.

"There's a new vegan place downtown."

The reactions from Emily and Cristina spoke a hard 'no' for that option.

Finally closing his locker and sitting on the bench to put on his shoes, George shyly shook his head. "I don't have too much money, guys."

Izzie grimaced. "Me neither."

"We can order Chinese," Emily offered as an idea. "It can be fifty bucks split between us all and we can eat at my place."

Cristina frowned. "House or apartment?"

"Apartment."

"I have a house," Meredith spoke up. "More room."

The group was quick to agree and finish changing before leaving the locker room, Izzie slapping at Alex's chest to let him know he was coming too. Boarding the elevator, they got themselves crammed in and they rode down to the first floor, Cristina and Alex arguing over a joke the latter had told and George showing the ambassador's daughter the article about their hospital a nurse had shown him during lunch break.

Stepping out of the elevator, the intern could barely take five steps before she heard her name being called. "Dr. Shepherd," she smiled smally.

Derek nodded. "Dr. Prentiss," he amended. "How was the rest of your first week?"

Emily forced herself not to blush under the surgeon's gaze. "Eventful," she breathed. "Helped take the bullets from a nine millimeter out of a police officer."

"And they're alive?"

"Three bullets wounds and still kicking," she grinned. "How was your week?"

Derek adjusted the grip on the files in his hand as his head shook. "All routine procedures. Thankfully, everyone is recovering as predicted."

Emily's lips curled into a smile. "Great."

Hearing the other interns calling Emily's name, the neurosurgeon watched as Emily waved them away for the time being. "Plans?"

The intern smiled. "Yeah, we're having dinner at Meredith's." Seeing his eyes somehow sparkle at her as the sun set outside, Emily bit her lip. "Would you like to come?"

Derek's brow shot up. "To dinner?"

"It's me and a few other interns," she nodded, feeling her heart beating out of her chest. "You can invite others too, if you want."

The doctor's head turned as the elevator doors opened for him, and he nodded. "I'm going in for a skull fracture and possible brain swell right now but I should be done in a few hours."

Emily watched with narrowed eyes as the older man made his way into the elevator. "Don't you need the address?"

Derek laughed, pressing the button for the third floor. "I'll see you there."

Walking back over to the new friends she had made, the brunette woman eyed another intern who was backing away from a group of residents. "Hey Iz, what's up?"

The blonde's eyes widened. "What? Nothing."

"You were talking to the residents," Emily laughed. "What, are you trying to one up the rest of us?"

"Of course not!"

Emily frowned as she followed the other intern out of the hospital, her hand tight around the strap of her bag. "Izzie? What's going on?" She stopped the blond before they could get to their perspective cars with a hand to her arm, turning her around. "Seriously, what is it?"

Izzie kept herself quiet.

Watching as the blonde's eyes flickered from the hospital over to the woman's house they were going to, Emily fought the laughter that wanted to burst from her mouth. "Did you invite them for food?"

"No," she quickly denied. "But I did mention we were having a hang out."

Emily's brow furrowed as she hurried after the intern. "Do you even know them?"

Izzie looked back to the famous neurosurgeon's daughter with a grin. "That's how you get to know people," she shrugged, running over to get into Meredith's car. "A hang out!"

Walking over to Cristina, she hopped on the back of the motorcycle that had gotten her to work that morning. "Meredith is going to freak," she noted as she slipped on her helmet, watching Izzie in the car start texting.

"More people, more alcohol," Cristina reasoned, making sure Emily was holding on before she took off.

An hour later, the group was on the floor of Meredith's living room, Emily's shoulder against George's as she stole another egg roll from the container. "So Izzie, how many people did yo-"

"Did I help save today?" she interjected with a smile. "Three."

Emily's eyes hardened.

"Beer," Cristina ordered, stealing the last one on the ground from George.

"Izzie are you ok?"

Before the blond intern was able to open her mouth, Emily's head spun to face the house's owner. "Izzie invited other doctors over tonight." Immediately Izzie's eyes were on her, and she shrunk back into the man by her side.

"You did what?" Meredith asked.

Alex smiled at the interaction, using it as a distraction so he could take the last dumpling.

"I'm making friends!"

The blue eyed woman gawked at her friend. "By inviting them to my house?"

Izzie hid the biting of her lip behind the bottle of beer she had gotten from the fridge. "It could be my house too if you let me rent a room," she tried to smile. "Then you wouldn't be as mad as you are right now."

Meredith sighed. "How many people?"

"Only like ten." When the homeowner looked as if she were alright with that answer, the former model's hand tightened around her beer. "Plus two dozen more than that."

George almost choked on his noodles.

"How many people did you think could fit here?"

"It's only a small party," Izzie assured her.

Meredith dropped her food to the floor and cleaned her hands. "Now it's a party?"

Emily licked her lips, ignoring George's pokes to her arm as he tried to get her attention. "Should we leave?"

"No," Izzie rushed out. "I told everyone I invited that we'd all be here. Specific people are coming to see other specific people." The looks from the other interns had Izzie shaking her head. "People who may have crushes on you!"

The ambassador's daughter set a hand to her chest. "Someone has a crush on me?" she asked.

"Is it Dr. Shepherd?"

Emily's foot flew out from under her and kicked at the Korean woman's leg.

"What?" the smart woman questioned. "Do you think I'm blind to McDreamy undressing you with his eyes in the cafeteria?"

George frowned. "McDreamy?"

Emily's eyes rolled. "He does not." Leaning back into the man at her side, the ambassador's daughter fought the blush that wanted to creep up her cheeks. After the night she and the surgeon had had, she was surprised she hadn't seen him looking at her differently.

The sound of a car coming up the driveway had the group of interns standing and cleaning up the food on the floor, everyone but Izzie rushing into the kitchen to clean their utensils and throw away their food. "Hi," she beamed, letting the other doctors into the house. "Come in."

"Do you need us to run to the liquor store?" Emily asked, fishing through Meredith's junk drawer for a bottle opener.

"I'll go, you handle the party."

Emily watched with wide eyes as Meredith ran from the kitchen. "I don't know my way around here!" She flew out the door after the other intern, following the blond with her eyes as she jumped into her car. "Meredith!"

Scowling, Emily turned around and shut the door behind her. "Izzie," she said as a warning, backing the blond into a corner. "This is _your_ party, ok? You handle it."

"You're not going to help me?"

The brunette rolled her eyes. "Of course I am," she huffed.

Watching the famous neurosurgeon's daughter scramble around the crowded living room to try and find a stereo to turn on, George cradled a couple of bottles of beers against his chest and tried to will away his nervous sweat. She was beautiful. "Do you need help?"

Not able to hear the other intern over the masses of people in her friend's house, Emily's head turned, watching as more doctors entered through the door. "Come on," she growled, passing through a few residents to get to the TV.

"Hand over the beer." Alex took three bottles from George's hands and backed his way into the living room. "Go check the garage for more."

Izzie slipped off her cardigan and smiled across the room to one of the attendings she had invited.

"Izzie," Emily hissed. "Help."

She couldn't remember the first hour of the party. After she'd finally found Meredith's stack of CDs and a stereo to play them in, Emily had stolen a beer from Alex and found herself standing on the outside of the party, chugging the bottle in under sixty seconds before Cristina handed her another.

"Emily?"

The brown eyed woman felt her eyes dilate as she tried to focus on the other intern. "Hey," she grinned at Meredith. "You're back."

"Are you drunk?" she laughed.

"Buzzed," Emily corrected, stealing the tequila from the other woman. "As I should be."

"Guys! Come dance!"

The two women took a quick shot before following Izzie up onto the coffee table, Emily's hands going to the former model's hips as she tried to dance to the beat of the music.

George jumped when someone bumped into him from behind, his eyes leaving the ambassador's daughter's moving body. "Hey," he smiled nervously to the other intern.

Alex smirked. "Not going to happen, man."

"Emily!"

The brunette turned and smiled down to the intern she'd become closest to in their first week. "Cristina," she grinned. "Come dance!"

Cristina shook her head, beer in hand. "Someone's outside for you."

She frowned, quickly jumping down from the table. Before she walked out the front door she felt her stomach lurch, and she stole a glass of water from the kitchen before heading out into the cold night air.

Walking up the front steps, the surgeon hid his laughter, watching the brunette he had been staring at for the past week gently stumble out the door. "I thought this was a dinner."

Emily could feel herself smiling at the handsome man a few feet away. "Hey," she said softly. "Yeah, it was supposed to be." She laughed, pausing to take another sip of the water in her hand before she shook her head. "Izzie invited some doctors over and it turned into that."

"Some?"

The ambassador's daughter glanced back at the house to see George trying to clean a spilled beer off the window. "Ok, a lot," the intern chuckled. Turning to look back at the older man, Emily's teeth raked over her bottom lip. "Thank you for coming."

Derek smiled back to his intern.

"How was your surgery?"

The neurosurgeon crossed his arms over his chest, his hands hitting the lapels of his suit jacket. "Easy," Derek nodded, his eyes on Emily's. "Maybe you can scrub in with me next time."

Emily's head immediately shook. "No special privileges," she reminded him.

"If you happen to be their doctor," he amended.

Stepping down onto the driveway, Emily could feel some of the water in her cup splashing out and onto her fingers. "Thank you for coming," she said again, her voice soft.

He paused, his smile fading as he thought about the next words to come out of his mouth.

"Derek?"

The surgeon gripped the material of his jacket in his hands. "Would you like to go to dinner? An actual dinner?" he joked.

Emily's lashes fluttered. "Really?"

"Just a dinner," he said.

The way he looked at her made Emily's chest tighten, his eyes darkening the way they did when she had first seen him that night in the bar. _Dinner_ , she mused. Maybe to see where things could go.


	5. Chapter 5

"Ok but what am I supposed to do if he tries to kiss me?" The ambassador's daughter followed her fellow intern through the ER, helping her roll a patient toward the elevator for Alex to take him up for x-rays. "It's not like we can actually do anything."

Cristina frowned. "Then why are you going on a date?"

Emily's head shook, following her friend back from the elevator and into the ER. "It's not a date," she denied. "It's dinner." The look she got from the Korean woman made her take a step back. "What? We can go to dinner as friends."

"He's an attending, you're an intern."

The brunette woman's brow pinched. "That doesn't mean we can't be friends."

Leading her friend over to the nurse's desk in the ER, Cristina took Izzie by the arm and turned her around. "Tell Emily an attending and an intern can't be friends."

The former model laughed. "Of course they can't."

Emily's jaw dropped. "Why not?" Sure technically they weren't on the same level in their professional fields, she was just starting out and he was a world renowned surgeon, but that didn't have anything to do with their personal lives.

"Em," Izzie smiled, "that's just not how it works. We can't be friends with our bosses."

Biting her lip, she leaned back against the nurse's desk. "I don't want to go into neuro," she shrugged. "So technically, he's not my boss."

The blond eyed her friend. "Didn't you sleep with him?"

Emily was quick to shush the other intern, checking around her to make sure no one else had heard. "Izzie!"

Cristina walked back over to the other two interns with her head shaking, handing them each a lollipop she'd stolen from one of the nurse's pockets. "Ok, first off you can't be friends with an attending because you're just an intern. It wouldn't work out."

Izzie nodded along with the other intern's logic.

"Second, you two already slept together," the curly haired woman stated obviously. "It definitely wouldn't work out."

Emily slowly shook her head, walking away when another car crash victim came into the ER. "You're going to be ok," she smiled, wheeling the teenager over to an empty bed. "Can you tell me your name?"

The teen with the bloodshot eyes winced. "Michael."

"Michael what?" she asked, gesturing for George to come over and help her move the teenager to the bed.

"Stradford."

Emily quickly hooked the teenager up to an IV as her friend started checking his wounds. "George," she whispered, "tell me something."

The nervous looking man's eyes shot up to the ambassador's daughter's. "Um, my blood is O negative."

The brunette forced herself not to laugh at the look on the younger man's face as she shook her head. "No, I'll tell you and you give me your opinion."

"Oh," he breathed.

Cleaning out one of the teenager's wounds, Emily bit her lip to try and not let out as much information as she wanted to. "Ok so what do you think about an attending and an intern trying to be friends?"

George made a face as he pulled a piece of glass from Michael's forehead. "It sounds hard."

Emily's head immediately nodded. "Yeah, I get that. But what if they're already friendly and they really want to try and be friends?"

"I don't see why it would be a problem."

The brunette intern took the needle and thread from the stand right beside her and sat herself down. Bringing over a cloth for the teenager to squeeze while she did his stitches, Emily rolled her lips. "What if the attending and intern already kind of have a relationship?"

George made another face that put Emily's heart at the pit of her stomach.

"What if they slept together?"

The intern fumbled with his needle and dropped it to the ground, his eyes shooting over to Emily's scared ones as the teenager on the bed shouted for another doctor to stitch him up. "It's ok," he rushed out, picking the needle up from the ground. "It's fine, I've got it."

Michael's eyes widened. "Don't use that on me!"

"No," George denied, "I have another, it's ok." Taking a clean needle and thread to stitch up the teenager on the ER bed, the intern looked back over to his friend who was now avoiding eye contact. "An attending and an intern?"

Emily kept herself quiet as she nodded her head.

"Really?"

The ambassador's daughter huffed. "George I can't have you freak out on me," she tried to laugh. "Just tell me what you think about it."

Keeping his hands as steady as he could as he stitched up the car crash victim, George gave a nod. "Ok well it's only our third week." He made sure to get his needle through the skin as quick as he could before continuing. "So they slept together in less than a month and they work together, and now want to date?"

"Just go to dinner."

George's head shook as he finished the wound on Michael's forehead. "It would probably be as awkward as any other post sex relationship that's not actually a relationship."

Emily sat up straighter. "But that doesn't mean it shouldn't happen?"

"Is this about Cristina and Burke?"

The brown eyed woman's jaw dropped at the implication. "Cristina and Burke?" Her gaze shot over to the intern in question who had heard her name from across the room. "Cristina Yang and Dr. Burke? They're not together."

"Not yet," George shrugged.

Cristina saw the face her friend was shooting her from across the ER and made sure to take the next patient to come in so she was able to get away from her.

"Unbelievable," Emily rushed out. "That's crazy."

"So they're not the ones you were talking about?"

The brunette groaned, leaving both George and the patient in bed three. Walking back over to the nurse's desk as she stripped off her gloves, the ambassador's daughter laid eyes on another one of her friends. "Meredith?"

The blue eyed woman was quick to leave the brunette at the nurse's desk. "I already heard. Bad idea."

Emily watched her friends leave the ER to head back up to the surgical floor, and her head fell into her hand. _Bad idea._


	6. Chapter 6

Smiling gently at the older man who pulled out her chair for her, the surgical intern sat herself down and let the waiter take her jacket to check into their coat room. "A little fancy," she laughed nervously, watching as the handsome man sat himself down across from her. "It doesn't seem like you can get in without a month's ahead reservation."

Derek's head shook. "I know the chef," he smiled. "College roommate."

"Pulling out all the stops, huh?" Emily shared a smirk with the older man as the waiter came back over. "I think I'm liking this friends thing."

"Madame, can I get you something to drink?"

When the brunette across from him took a chance to look at the menu, the neurosurgeon smiled. "May I?" Getting the affirmative nod fro the younger woman, he looked up to the waiter. "The two thousand six Moet et Chandon Dom Perignon, please."

Emily smiled behind her menu. He knew his wines.

"I'm sorry, is white ok?"

"White is perfect," she smiled, setting her menu down on the table. She was definitely a wino, but if she drank too much red it stained her teeth right away. "So what made you decide to come here?"

Derek held in the breath he wanted to blow out as he shrugged. "There are a nice couple of restaurants near both our homes but the heart of Seattle really has the best places."

The dark haired woman held in her laughter. "Has a couple good burger joints too."

"That's true," he laughed, loving the smile he saw on Emily's face. "Maybe the next night we're free we can go to that joint on eighth."

Emily's eyes immediately lit up. "Have you been there?" She and Cristina went there their third day together and she had immediately fallen in love with their burgers. "They're insanely greasy and would probably give us heart attacks within seconds, but those burgers are amazing. And they're pretty cheap considering how rich the meat is."

Derek watched as the younger woman went from looking at him to the menu, the same excited look in her eyes.

"What do you think you'll get?"

Looking down to the menu in his hands, the neurosurgeon shrugged his shoulders. "Zach once made the duck for me and it's amazing."

Emily's brow rose. "What special occasion was that for?" she smiled to him, putting down the menu as she thanked the waiter who poured their wine. "How do you get an award winning chef to cook you dinner?"

"Did you not hear the college roommate story?" Derek laughed. Raising his glass, he reached across to the beautiful intern to clink against hers. "We have to cheers or we'll have bad luck."

The intern was quick to nod her head. "And what are we cheers-ing to?"

The dark haired man looked to the younger woman with a sparkle in those icy blue eyes, his glass tipping toward hers. "Our new friendship."

"Our new friendship," she agreed, letting their classes clink.

"Can I get the beautiful couple an appetizer?"

Emily smiled up to the older man beside their table, not hearing her new friend sitting across the table correct him. "What do you recommend?"

"Mademoiselle, we have the finest pastas on the west coast. But if you are in for something richer, I recommend either the duck in raspberry sauce or the veal in mushroom sauce."

The intern was quick to close her menu. "Derek recommended the duck as well," she smiled, winking at the neurosurgeon she was eating with. "I believe I'll go with that."

"And I'll have the veal." Waiting until their waiter took their menus and left the table, Derek looked to the beautiful brunette across from him. "So I wanted to ask you about your birthmark."

Emily's face immediately went red, her jaw dropping at the remark. "What?" she laughed. Talking about a birthmark above her butt didn't seem to fall into the 'friend' category.

Derek was all smiles. "It was interesting to me."

"How do you even remember such a small detail?" the intern wondered. They had been so drunk they didn't even remember one another's names. "It's not that big of a birthmark," Emily almost snorted, picking up her glass of wine to take a sip.

"It's pretty unforgettable. It looks like a cat."

Emily's eyes rolled. "I know," she sighed, her smile still plastered to her face. "Cristina and Mer said the same thing, so did Izzie and Alex."

The neurosurgeon felt himself freeze. Alex? Alex had seen her birthmark?

The brunette grinned at the look on the older man's face. "Jealous, are we?" Thanking the waiter for the bread that was set on their table, the intern's head shook. "No, I haven't slept with Alex."

Derek gave a nervous chuckle. "Oh."

He couldn't have sounded more guilty if he tried. "I don't sleep with everyone on the first date, believe it or not," she joked, letting the older man know it was ok with a smile. "I sold my apartment, so we're all crashing at Meredith's."

"All the interns?"

"It's like a circus," Emily laughed loudly, "but I love it. I didn't grow up with siblings, so this couldn't have been better."

The neurosurgeon took a second to drink some more of his wine. "No siblings?"

Emily's head shook. "Just my mother and myself. Whenever my father got a little time I would stay with him, but it wasn't as often as it could have been." She could see her new friend analyzing each word that came out of her mouth, and she let her lips stay settled around the rim of her glass for a moment longer than needed. "What about you?"

"Four sisters."

The intern laughed at the exasperated just saying those two words. "Really?"

Derek nodded, setting down his wine. "Kathleen, Liz, Amelia and Nancy. And yes, they were all handfuls." Finally stealing a piece of bread from the center of their table, the surgeon huffed. "They're all doctors too."

"Five doctors?" Emily asked in astonishment. "That's amazing. I can't even imagine the loans your parents had to take out."

The surgeon shared a laugh with the younger woman. "My mother, thank God, is a patient woman."

"What about your father?" The famous surgeon's daughter smiled smally to the man across from her, watching as he spread the butter over his piece of bread. "I'm sure he and your mother are very proud of you."

Derek could feel his chest tighten. "My mother is," he nodded. "I'm sure my father would be."

Emily's eyes softened on the surgeon as she took in the information. She could understand losing a father figure at such a young age, her grandfather who made sure she was loved every moment of the day had passed when she was only ten, and not having him be able to witness her many accomplishments broke her heart. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm alright."

Their food arrived and the conversation was quick to lighten up, the brunettes causing heads to turn as they laughed throughout their meals. Halfway through, the surgeon had persuaded his intern to share her entrée with him and he would do the same, and the now buzzed man had had a difficult time cutting the veal.

Emily's laugh had echoed through the entire restaurant.

An hour later they were walking side by side down a busy Seattle city street, Derek dragging the beautiful woman into the ice cream shop he said was his favorite.

"Can I buy this one?"

Derek didn't even let the brunette take out her wallet before he gave a ten to the server.

Emily frowned, letting her friend lead her over to the stools by the window so they could sit. She gave a long lick to the chocolate cone before looking to the older man. "You have to let me pay for something sometime."

"Do not." He made sure not to watch the intern eat her ice cream, her tongue dragging across the treat easily reminding him of their night together.

"You're going to be broke in a month's time if we keep having nights like this," Emily chuckled, smiling along with the older man before a voice behind her had her turning on her stool.

"Richard told me I'd find you here."

Derek could feel his heart drop into his stomach. "Addison."

Emily sat back against the countertop, the tension between Derek and the redhead in the doorway making her fall silent in her seat.


	7. Chapter 7

"You're joking."

Emily ignored the stares from her friends as she cleaned the blood from her hands. Earlier that day, the intern had been assigned a little boy whose leg had been cut, and after she had stitched him up they had found an infection, and it had had to be amputated from his shin down.

"He can't be married," Izzie breathed. "Are they divorced?"

Rushing over to the small group of girls, Meredith held up her phone. "I found her!" Showing the phone to the other inter, the blond huffed. "Addison Shepherd: OB/GYN and Neonatal specialist."

Cristina frowned. "World renowned?" she read off the screen. "That's not true. I haven't heard of her."

Emily felt herself grow sad at the thought of the man she'd slept with having a relationship with the redhead that had crashed their date night. The thought of them even holding hands had her stomach rolling.

"Em?"

The brunette turned her head, seeing Izzie and Meredith giving her concerning looks. "I'm fine," she shrugged. "It wasn't a date, remember? Just a dinner between friends."

"But you slept together," the former model sighed.

Emily gave a slow nod of the head.

Meredith stepped closer to the brunette and moved a stray curl from her face. "He slept with you and didn't tell you he was married."

The ambassador's daughter breathed out a laugh, grabbing a paper towel to dry her hands. "I got that much from the story." Shrugging her shoulders, she threw the paper towel into the trash. "Guys, I really don't want to talk about it."

Cristina nodded in agreement. "Emily has spoken. Let's get back to work."

The ivory skinned woman followed her friend out of the bathroom and out onto the surgical floor. She hadn't spoken to Derek after what had happened and she surely didn't want to talk about it with anyone else.

"You didn't sleep together again, right?"

Emily made a face.

Cristina shrugged. "Because then I'd get why you were upset. But if it was a one night stand and neither of you want it again, it shouldn't be a problem."

The ambassador's daughter ran a hand down her face. "Yeah."

"We can talk about it later."

Emily stopped her stride as she reached the nurse's desk. "With tequila?" she asked hopefully, smiling sadly when Cristina turned back to face her.

The Korean woman was quick to nod her head before walking away.

"Prentiss."

Emily turned to see Dr. Burke walking up to the nurse's station. "How are you?" she smiled, taking the newest file from the nurse closest to her. "I heard about your emergency septal myectomy on Saturday. How did everything go?"

The doctor looked impressed. "Very smoothly."

"That's amazing," Emily grinned up to the older man. "Was Cristina able to watch?"

Burke tried his best to hide his surprise at the question, feeling the famous doctor's daughter's eyes narrow on him as he hesitated to answer the question. "Cristina?" He made it a point to act as casually as he could, taking the file the nurse behind the desk was handing to him.

"Yang," the ambassador's daughter clarified. "Intern Yang?"

"Oh, Cristina Yang," Burke nodded. "She's extremely talented, yes? She wasn't able to stand in on my procedure yesterday but maybe next week."

Emily smiled to the older man as he walked away, hiding the smirk that wanted to appear.

"Emily?"

The familiar voice had Emily's body standing straight and turning away from the desk. "Thank you, Sheila." She walked toward the elevators and pressed the lower level button, doing her best to ignore the man calling her name.

Derek raced around a group of nurses to catch up to the younger woman. "Emily," he breathed, standing in front of her.

"Derek," she smiled politely, her head in the file she held, "how are you?"

The neurosurgeon frowned. "You've been ignoring me."

Hearing the ding of the elevator the intern's head popped up, watching as the doctors in the elevator almost pushed her one night stand out of the way to get by with their patient on the gurney. "I'm sorry you feel that way," the intern shrugged, walking into the elevator. "I haven't meant to."

Derek sighed, stepping into the elevator with the younger woman. "Emily, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

After the elevator doors closed and he could see the brunette before him wouldn't look up from her new file, Derek stepped to the right and pulled the alarm button.

Emily's hand shot out, steadying herself and gripping the bar that ran along the elevator walls. "What?"

"You did it to me once," he shrugged. "It's only fair."

Frowning, the intern closed the file in her hands and held it to her chest. "I'm sorry if you think I've been ignoring you," she tried, "but I haven't done it on purpose."

Derek slowly shook his head, stepping toward the beautiful woman before him. "Emily, I'm so sorry."

"For what?"

The neurosurgeon moved his hands through the air as if to find the right words. "Addison."

Emily met the eyes of the older man and bit her lip. He looked upset, but she couldn't put something so serious behind them just like that. "I was trying to explain to my friends that it wasn't a big deal because we were just trying to be friends."

Derek's eyes shot open. She had told her friends?

"But we slept together," she said quietly. "I slept with a married man."

The surgeon stopped his movement toward the intern. He could see her dark eyes grow sad as she continued to look at him. Had he really hurt her that badly?

"I get that you don't really understand."

Derek was taken back. "What do you mean?"

Emily let out a breath. "Have you slept with a married woman?" she asked. She laughed humorlessly, watching as the older man looked down to the ground. "If it was a one night stand and neither of us had to see each other again, it really wouldn't have mattered. But we work together." The looked Derek was giving her made her heart clench. "And then you tried to be my friend, and never once did you try and tell me about her."

"I left her. I don't want to be with her anymore," he tried to make her understand.

"But you're not divorced. You're still married."

Stepping to the side, the neurosurgeon let the ambassador's daughter press the alarm button to start the elevator back up. "I am sorry."

Emily passed him by as she stepped out onto the second floor. "Me too," the intern almost whispered, leaving the older man by himself in the elevator.


	8. Chapter 8

Watching the brunette intern laugh along with a few children patients in the pediatric ward, Derek couldn't hold back the huff that wanted to leave him. He wasn't able to go up and speak to her anymore without it being a work issue otherwise the younger woman didn't want to speak, he wasn't allowed to touch her because she would flinch away, and if she were to even see him in the hallway, instead of ignore him like he'd rather she do, she would give him a small smile to let him know that everything was ok.

He knew it wasn't ok, and that was his fault.

"Derek?"

Turning at the voice that had startled him, the neurosurgeon shook his head. "Richard," he tried to smile. "How was your surgery this morning?"

The chief of surgery watched with a frown as the younger man did his best to calm himself down. "Perfectly." Stepping closer to his employee, the darker man bent his head. "Is everything alright?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

Richard's brow rose. "You look like a twelve year old who's trying to hide the porn he stole from his father." The look on the younger man's face told Richard everything he wanted to know. "Is it Addison?"

The neurosurgeon sighed, his gaze moving down to the floor.

"I apologize if hiring her here doesn't agree with you, but we needed someone new in peds. You know how good she is."

Derek's front teeth raked over his bottom lip to help him hold his tongue. "Yup," he sighed, catching the woman in question's eye from the pediatrics' ward's front desk. "I sure do."

Richard shook his head. "She told me you two were still married."

"Not for long," the handsome man almost shrugged before leaving his boss to himself.

Rushing over to the intern he had fallen for, Derek put a smile on his face. "Dr. Prentiss," he grinned, waiting for her to turn to him before he high fived one of the children. "I see you're getting to know our favorite patients."

Emily looked back down to the children before her. "I am," the intern smiled, handing the teddy bear with its big yellow bow back to the five year old suffering from a brain tumor.

When the younger woman backed away from the children, the surgeon followed. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

"I'm really busy."

Derek continued behind the beautiful brunette taking the file the nurse was to hand to her and holding it in his hands. "I just want five minutes. Is that ok?"

Emily tried her best not to send him a smile that showed the pity she held. "I'm really busy," she said again, taking the thick file from the neurosurgeon. "Try me again in an hour or so and I should have a few minutes."

The dark haired man watched as the ambassador's daughter walk swiftly down the hall and toward the elevators, disappearing from his view as the doors closed on her. She hadn't even looked back.

"Problems with your girlfriend?"

Derek watched as Burke gave him a grin. "She's not my girlfriend."

The heart surgeon shook his head. "A girlfriend and a wife?"

"She's not my girlfriend," he repeated, leaving the older man and running down toward the elevators. "And she's not my wife!"

Addison met up with the heart surgeon by the nurse's desk to get the file on her newest patient, sending him a smile when he looked down to find her eyes behind her dark red hair. "I'm his wife."

Befuddled, his eyes wide, Burke quickly left the pediatric ward to make his way back to the surgical floor.

Pushing her dark hair behind her ears, Emily walked into the ER. It had been a long week, having to try and ignore the man she'd been with but not to a point where he thought that she was feeling badly about what happened. Obviously that wasn't working in her favor, seeing as how he had followed her all the way down to the first floor. She could still hear his footsteps behind her.

"Emily please?"

The famous surgeon's daughter smiled to a few doctors as she passed them, ignoring the voice that called to her.

Following the younger woman, Derek could feel the eyes of those he passed on him. "Emily, I really need to talk to you."

Emily sighed, dropping off the file of her newest patient and quickly turning to make her way into the medical supply closet. Not closing the door behind her, the surgical intern didn't have to wait long before her one night stand followed. "You need to stop."

Derek slowly shut the door behind them. "So this pining for you thing isn't working? Is that what you're telling me?"

"You're married," she hissed through grit teeth. She was trying her best to be fine with the situation but he was making everything so difficult. "I don't understand what you're doing. Your wife came across the country to be able to try and make your marriage work, and you're willing to just throw that away?"

The surgeon didn't even have to think. "Yes."

Emily crossed her arms over her chest. "Why? I'm an intern, and we barely know each other. What's the point of throwing away your marriage for some girl?"

"Because you're not some girl," he rushed out. He could see she was getting upset, so he stayed where he was. "I like you. I know how we met was wrong, and I shouldn't have let us make that decision knowing that I was still married." He ignored the roll of her eyes, silencing himself for a minute when he heard people pass by the closet door. "I'm sorry about that, but I don't want to be with her."

The brunette woman looked to the older man with narrowed eyes. "And what? You want to be with me? We were together once."

"And I loved every minute of it."

Emily huffed. "It was sex, Derek. What did you expect?"

Derek's head shook so much it could have popped right off his head. "We had dinner," he reminded her, softening his tone. Looking into those dark eyes, he watched as they slowly softened on him. "We spoke for hours. We didn't have a good time then?"

The intern kept herself quiet, her mind suddenly flashing back to the night they'd spent together at that fancy restaurant. If she hadn't fallen for him the first night they were together, what she remembered of him anyway, he had captured her heart on that date that wasn't a date. He had treated her to dinner and they'd shared their life stories, and no one had made her smile wider than the surgeon had.

"I know you felt the same way I did that night, but we said it wasn't a date. I left Addison for a reason, Emily."

Emily let her lips roll inward. "And what's that?"

The dark haired man kept himself silent for a moment. "She cheated on me," he nodded, "with my best friend. So I left."

Laughing, mostly at herself, the young woman with now tear filled eyes shook her head, glancing up to the ceiling so he couldn't see. "And that's what you did to her."

"We're not together," he said again, "so I didn't cheat."

"Can we try not to justify this, please?"

Derek took a step toward the younger woman, watching as she tried to tuck into herself and hide. "Emily, I can give you time to think. All I want is to spend more time with you."

The ambassador's daughter looked to the surgeon with her eyes blurred, her tears trying their best to stay put. "I'm trying to get my life together right now. A boyfriend, or whatever you want to be to me, isn't in the cards."

Giving the beautiful woman a moment to herself to breathe, the neurosurgeon let himself try and stand back against the door. "I understand. I just want to be able to talk to you."

Emily shook her head. Before she could open her mouth the closet doorknob started to rattle, and immediately the two doctors rushed to take a few supplies from the nearest shelf.

"Hey," Cristina grinned, seeing her best friend piling gauze into her hands. "You need help?"

The brunette quickly nodded her head, letting the Korean woman take a few of her supplies before stepping out of the room. Looking back to the older man, knowing Cristina was waiting for her to continue down the hall, Emily couldn't stop her tears from spilling down her cheeks. "You need to give me time."

"I can do that," he agreed, letting her disappear behind the closet door. "I can do that."


	9. Chapter 9

"How exactly did they find out?"

Emily grimaced, helping Izzie into her scrubs after she had stripped herself down in front of all the other interns earlier that hour. Walking into the chaotic room, Emily and Meredith took their friend by the arm and escorted her to the nearest bathroom. Cristina took care of the men in the locker room, ripping apart the pictures they had copied of Izzie and made sure to threaten Alex so he'd leave them alone until the next century.

Izzie shrugged the other women off and sat herself down. "They're pigs," she grunted. "Who cares? They know."

"It's not something bad."

"It's shameful," the blond said quietly, "I get that, and they know that which is why they printed all those out." She hadn't been ashamed of those photos since the day they were taken and she had to tell her mother about them before she opened a magazine and saw it for herself, or someone at the hair salon that day told her.

Emily rolled her eyes, hearing the guys outside the bathroom, Cristina threatening them with her scalpel if they didn't back up and away. "Don't think that. You looked hot."

Izzie grinned, shooting her new friend a wink as she tied her hair up. "It was before I stress ate because of this job," the former model pouted, looking in the mirror and drawing her fingers over her smile lines. "I've gained ten pounds."

"I wish I could gain ten pounds," Meredith countered, finally letting Cristina into the ladies room. "No matter what I eat, I stay the same."

Emily grimaced, noticing Izzie's glare. "Not really helping, Mer."

The smartest of the group locked the door behind her and dropped her scalpel into her jacket pocket. "Are we done here? Because Bailey is looking for all of us, and I bribed George to keep Alex off your tail but if we stay in here any longer he'll sniff us out and hunt us down."

"Dramatic much?"

Izzie finished washing up her hands and ripped a piece of paper towel from the dispenser. "I'm good," she nodded, ignoring the eyes of the other women. "Let's go."

The last one out of the ladies room, Emily made sure to tighten her ponytail before veering away from her friends to head down to surgical.

Inhaling, the ambassador's daughter breathed in the scent of the cleaning products the halls were doused with and let the stinging sensation stick to her lungs. When she was younger and her mother wanted to get rid of her for a few hours, she'd send her off to the hospital to spend time with her father. Most of the time he was too busy with surgeries to actually spend any time with her, but she would be able to sit in the gallery and watch as he operated on his patients.

She was sure, if her mother found out, that she'd be punished and banished from going back to the hospital, so her father had kept it a secret just between him and her. If she hadn't been able to be back in that gallery, the ten year old girl didn't know what she would do with herself.

Then after her parents had split she went to live with her mother, and rarely did she get to spend time at that window watching her father's surgeries anymore.

"Dr. Prentiss?"

Emily looked up, taking the clipboard from her superior. "Dr. Webber," she nodded.

The older man watched as the other interns around the famous neurosurgeon's daughter scattered, making sure to get to their posts. "I have an opening for an intern to be in my surgery this afternoon."

Emily's jaw could have hit the floor. "Really?" He had put on the surgery board that morning that he was doing a bladder cystectomy, and each time Emily heard someone talk about their try at a cystectomy something went wrong.

"Unless you have something better to do," the chief said slyly, watching with narrowed eyes as the young woman took the information in.

The intern laughed, shaking her head. "I would love to," she breathed. "Thank you." She could see his smirk before he turned and walked away, her dark eyes following him.

Walking up to the dark haired woman, Derek couldn't quite read the expression on her face. He tried his best to figure out what to do with his hands as he approached her, not sure whether to keep them by his sides and feel awkward with the dead weight or cross his arms and come off as if he wanted to show off his muscles. "Everything ok?"

Emily turned at the voice, trying her best to smile at the older man. "Yeah. Webber asked me to scrub in."

"On his cystectomy? Wow."

"I know," she agreed, nodding gently. Looking into his eyes, she felt a tingle at the base of her neck, and she hugged the clipboard to her chest. "Well I should get going." If she were to stay with him any longer, she didn't know if she'd end up jumping him or falling into a ball to cry on the floor.

Derek's brow rose. "Yeah." Before she could walk away, he noticed another intern walking up to her, and he stayed quiet as he watched them talk.

"Emily right?"

The brunette frowned, letting the other intern take her hand to shake. "Yeah."

"Derek Morgan," he introduced, grinning to the younger woman. "I know you're in Bailey's unit, I'm with Heigl. A bunch of my friends are going over to Joe's after work. You want to come?"

The neurosurgeon was immediately on high alert.

"Thanks, but I can't," Emily declined. "And I don't know you that well."

The darker man shrugged. "Isn't that how you make friends?"

Emily's eyes narrowed, noticing the interns behind Derek who were high fiving each other. "Something tells me you don't just want to be friends."

"What? You're telling me you're not single?"

Walking up behind the younger woman, Derek placed a hand to her back. "Is everything alright here, Dr. Prentiss?"

Emily wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole. Intervening in her conversation? Was he trying to act like her father or her boyfriend?

"Dr. Shepherd," he introduced, stepping slightly in front of her to shake the other intern's hand. "I heard you introduce yourself as Morgan."

Before they could go any further, Emily lifted her head. "I have to get going," she spoke up, "I have a surgery to prep for." Turning on her heel, she made sure Derek saw her eyes darken as they hardened on him before she walked away.

He felt his bubble pop right there.

"You together, man?"

Derek ignored the younger man's words before following the path his favorite intern had taken.

The ambassador's daughter shrugged her hair off her shoulder as she set her clipboard down, letting Meredith hand her a pair of gloves. "How do you politely tell someone to fuck off?" she grunted, letting the latex snap against her skin.

Meredith made a face, watching the other intern as she fiddled with the papers on her clipboard. "Depends on who it is, I guess."

"Derek." Emily rolled her eyes at the look her friend gave her. "I know. He went all 'protective boyfriend' on some intern who asked me out."

The other prodigy of their group leaned on the counter of the nurse's desk. "He slept with you one time." It amazed her how quickly people seemed to get attached. "If it was 'supportive friend' that's different, but you said 'supportive boyfriend'."

Nodding her head, she had Meredith follow her over to a little boy who needed stitches waiting on a bed in the ER. "He walked right up to me and stared the other guy down like it was some fight. And he put a hand on my back."

Meredith's eyes softened, noticing the neurosurgeon nonchalantly enter the ER.

"I told him to give me time to sort stuff out," Emily sighed, dabbing the boy's head with an alcohol swab, "but I don't think he knows the definition of 'slow'."

The blond sat herself down and held the little boy's hand, giving him a smile when he opened his eyes.

Turning her head, Emily caught the eyes of the older man she'd been speaking of, her heart racing when he tried to give her a friendly smile.

"What are you taking time to think about?"

The brunette frowned, moving her hand to start on the boy's stitches. "What do you mean?"

"Are you taking time to think if you want to be with him?" Meredith questioned. "Or are you taking time to think if you want him in your life at all?"

Her eyes on the task at hand, Emily gave herself a minute to think about it. She couldn't go as deep into the topic as she wanted, knowing it wasn't the place or time, but it was a good question.

Once the stitches were finished and the boy was transferred to Alex by the MRI, she sat down. "I like him," she admitted quietly, "but he's married, and his wife moved here to be with him."

"I thought they were separated." When her new friend absently shrugged her shoulders, Meredith moved toward her. "No, listen! If they're separated, then what's wrong with trying things with him?"

Emily looked to Meredith with sad eyes. "I don't know if I can trust him."

When their names were called, both interns rushed over to help the new patients being rushed into the ER, hearing Bailey chastise them for sitting when they could have been helping.

"What if you try to just be friends first?"

Emily picked up the crying little girl from the bed, rubbing her back to comfort her as Meredith examined the burns on her legs. "What do you mean?" She whispered her words, letting the five year old cling to her as Meredith rubbed the burn lotion on her legs.

"We're having another party," the blond shrugged, "I'll invite him. You two can try to talk."

The older woman felt hesitant. What if she wasn't ready for that?

"Just see how it goes."

Emily sighed into the little girl's hair as she held her, making sure she was as comfortable as she could be with her mother in surgery.

Meredith left her friend in the ER and made her way over to the neurosurgeon watching their every move. "Dr. Shepherd?" She watched as his surprised eyes turned toward her, and she shook her head. "You're not her boyfriend. Ok?"

The brunette could hear Meredith's voice from across the room, and slowly she turned. Brown eyes meeting blue, Emily felt her heart clench as the girl in her arms held her tighter, and Derek made sure to look away, leaving Emily by herself in the ER.


	10. Chapter 10

Throwing back the shot of whiskey she had poured herself, Emily hissed at the pain. If it weren't for the children trick-or-treating and coming to the door every other minute, Emily would have been five shots deep.

Meredith had let her know that Derek agreed to come to the party.

Was he purposely ignoring what she told him? She wasn't sure she had had enough time to digest everything before seeing him again.

She could hear Alex and Izzie arguing as the doorbell rang, and she quickly picked up the bowl of candy they had filled up for trick-or-treaters.

Opening the door, the intern smiled down to the children standing on the steps. "Happy Halloween," she laughed. "Aren't you all so scary?"

The little boy with his hair slickedback did his best to bare his fangs. "I'm a vampire."

"I see that." She knelt down and dropped a lollipop into his pumpkin. "A candy for the vampire, the witch and the beautiful princess," she smiled, watching the little boy in the princess costume blush.

"Thank you!"

Closing the door behind her, Emily quickly made her way into the kitchen. "Everyone just calm down," she huffed, noticing Meredith and George fighting over the snack bowl. "What is going on?"

"Oh look, it's Mother Teresa coming to keep the peace."

Grinning, the brunette took a piece of one of the freshly made brownies and threw it at the intern who the other day proclaimed her love for cardio. "Fuck off," she snorted, laughing along with Cristina. "Seriously, what's with all the yelling?"

Alex rolled his eyes. "George wants to make the mix and Mer won't let him."

"Why can't I make it?"

The blond intern stole the bowl back from her friend. "Because you get the guac and I get the chips."

Emily frowned, walking over to the island in the kitchen and grabbing a cheese grater to help with the mix. Last time, George's chip mix had sent her running o the bathroom. She had to remember to thank Meredith for taking over this time. "Why didn't we make this all earlier?" The staff from the hospital was supposed to be there in less than twenty minutes.

"Izzie burned all the cookies so we had to start over."

The former model pouted. "I was studying. I forgot," she sighed, letting Emily set a curl back behind her ear.

"Studying comes first," the ambassador's daughter reminded her.

Walking up behind the brunette, Alex wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "You smell like a liquor shop, by the way," he whispered, finding privacy as the volume in the kitchen picked back up.

Pouting, Emily leaned back into the other intern. "I'm nervous." She heard George call out that he was going to answer the door as she groaned. "I don't know if I want him here."

Alex reached forward and took a piece of a brownie, offering it to the now laughing woman. "Just ignore him and enjoy your night."

She brought her hand up to catch the crumbs of the brownie her friend was feeding her. "I've ignored him long enough." Taking a second to appreciate the sweetness of the chocolate, Emily sighed. "Why is every man so complicated?"

"Every man?" he asked. "Every single one of us who has a penis?"

Emily couldn't stop herself from laughing. "Yes!" she shrieked, jumping away when he tickled her. "Everyone with a penis always wants to put it in everything and everyone."

"I haven't gotten mine even close to you." Alex took the rest of the brownie and threw it at the other intern. "Jealous?"

Her head shook, cracking up as she blocked the treat from hitting her face. "Yeah baby, come give it to me," she joked, her ribs hurting as she laughed along with the other intern.

"Uh, guys?"

Turning at the sound of George's voice, Emily's eyes widened.

Derek gave a small nod. "Sorry to interrupt," he said slowly, watching as the brunette woman he had fallen for straighten up and wipe the crumbs she thought could be littering her face. "Looks like I'm a little early."

Cristina made her way over to Emily as one of the other interns offered the neurosurgeon in the kitchen's doorway a beer. "You ok?"

Shakily nodding her head, the brown eyed brunette put her hands on the kitchen island to steady herself. "I thought I'd be able to hide in the crowd." She rolled her shoulders to try and rid some of her tension. "Guess that option's out."

When she heard him walking over, Emily stole Cristina's beer and set the bottle to her lips so if he asked a question she had an obvious excuse as to why she wouldn't answer.

"If I remember correctly, Emily said you're all living here now?"

Izzie sucked the guacamole off of her thumb as she nodded her head. "Cheaper rent."

Derek smiled, sitting himself down at the island. "I would assume it's like the house I grew up in," the surgeon laughed. "Daily disagreements?"

The ambassador's daughter watched as George and Meredith continued to argue as Derek spoke.

Hearing the doorbell, the surgeon continued. "But at the end of the day you still love being together?" He watched Izzie walk behind the beautiful brunette he had been chasing for months and fix the hair Emily had left to dry and curl. "Like siblings."

"Siblings who hooked up, maybe."

Emily almost choked on her beer, coughing the liquid up at Alex's comment. "He's kidding," she said quickly, waving her hand before her eyes to stop herself from crying. "He's just kidding." She had already told Derek that she and Alex hadn't been together, but with all of her friend's jokes she was sure Derek would come to his own conclusions.

Derek slowly nodded. "Of course."

Watching the two dark haired doctors awkwardly stare at one another, Cristina stepped forward. "So Em, you want to go start the music?"

Emily nodded. She could hear George letting people into the house already. "Yeah sure." She almost ran from her spot in the kitchen, sure the neurosurgeon was watching her.

"Do you want a beer, Dr. Shepherd?"

Derek nodded as Cristina made her way to the fridge. "Thank you, but please call me Derek."

The dark eyed woman laughed lightly, handing the older man the drink. "Just like Emily does, right?"

The surgeon's face immediately fell. He could hear a couple more doctors from the hospital walk into the house and the music start to play as he fought hard to think of something to say.

"I'm sure Emily told you we knew," Cristina grinned, "but you probably don't know how much you hurt her."

Derek's eyes softened. "I do." When he met her in the supply room and saw her tears, his heart broke.

"I'm not going to give you one of those 'she's my best friend and I'll kill you if you hurt her' speeches because those are completely overrated." Rolling her eyes, Cristina took a swig of her own beer. "But I can tell you that you'll do better with her than without her." She watched as he searched for something to say and she made a face. "Yeah, I'm not done."

Sitting down across from the older man, the surgical intern looked into the eyes Emily had bragged to her about. "I don't like you."

Derek sat back.

"I'd rather Emily be with Alex and make it uncomfortable for our whole little family group here," she had to stop herself from gagging at the 'f' word, "but she's been struggling with how to approach you. Emily wants to at least be friends, and you running after her like a second grader is making it hard for her."

The surgeon slowly nodded his head, sitting his elbows on the island. "So I should...?"

Cristina almost outright groaned at the clueless look on his face. "Either dump your wife and tell Emily how you feel or leave her alone."

Derek watched the younger woman walk into the crowded living room. Was she right? He knew that he wanted nothing to do with Addison, but would it be better to leave Emily alone for good?

What he felt for Emily was something he hadn't even thought about feeling for Addison until their six month anniversary had passed.

Stealing a shot that Meredith had made for Alex, the famous neurosurgeon's daughter threw it back. "Sorry," she hissed, handing the glass back to the homeowner. "I'll buy you an entire bottle."

Alex grimaced. "Slow down, why don't you?"

"I can't." Emily cursed herself for the tears entering her eyes at the thought of the older man. The alcohol was already hitting her. "I can't stay here with him knowing that I want to be more than friends and can't be."

Stepping closer to her friend, Cristina took Emily's arm. "Maybe go upstairs and take a minute."

Emily quickly nodded, wiping away her tears and passing the doctors they had invited so she could make her way up to her room.

She sighed, walking down the hall to the last room on the right and closing the door behind her. Cristina, Izzie and herself had moved into the one room. Sitting on the edge of the bed two of them shared at once, the brunette quickly wiped away the tears that kept falling. "This is why I shouldn't drink," she scolded herself, seeing her reflection in the mirror across the room. "Fuck."

A knock at the door had Emily wanting to fall back into the clean duvet and groan.

When she opened the door, Derek noticed her eyes widen and her breathing stop. "Can I come in?" She looked upset, small tear droplets in the corners of her eyes and her cheeks red.

Emily gulped, trying to get her breath past the lump in her throat as she stepped back and let him inside.

It was dark so she could barely see his face, the moonlight's incandescence the only way she was able to see the sadness in those blue eyes.

"If you want me to leave, I can."

Emily felt herself grow dizzy from the alcohol, but she shook her head anyway. "No." The lump in her throat made her voice hoarse, and her tears suddenly clouded her vision. "Don't go."

At the tears threading through her words, Derek instinctively took a step forward. "How can I help?"

The intern couldn't stop herself from taking half a step forward and stepping on her tip toes and pressing her lips against the older man's.

He had wanted nothing more than to kiss her for weeks, but the desperation in Emily's kiss had him backing away. "You've been drinking," he tried to reason with her. "I can't do this right now."

Emily rolled her teary eyes and stepped away. "Because you want Addison, right?" She knew they had started talking again, and God knows what they had discussed and how they had decided to deal with their marriage.

"What?" Derek almost laughed, shaking his head. "No. Why would you think that?"

The brunette quickly divulged that she had seen them the other day at the hospital having lunch together, Addison taking the tomato Derek hadn't wanted and eating it herself. "Just tell me what you two are doing."

Derek gave himself a moment to compose himself, keeping quiet.

"Do you still love her?" She would regret this the next morning when she remembered what happened, but if she didn't get it off her chest then she never would. "Because if you want to work your marriage out then I need you to leave." She needed time to convince herself that she would be ok.

Derek wanted to wrap the smaller woman up in a hug, seeing the sadness wash over her. "If I said yes, what would you say?"

Emily held back the tears that wanted to spill down her cheeks. "I'd try to convince you that I'm the better choice," she whispered.

"How?"

The brunette sniffled, her eye contact with the neurosurgeon never breaking. "You told me yourself how you felt when we went to dinner. We tried to be friends, but it's too hard to act like I'm ok with seeing you with Addison."

Derek took his fists curling at his side and put them in his pockets. "So what do you want me to do?"

"I want you to choose me." The words came out in a sob, Emily feeling a hiccup well in her chest. "I want you to love me, because I think that's the reason I can't get you out of my head." Emily blinked slowly, letting the tears slip over her lashes and her vision clear. "I love you."

It killed the older man to not be able to respond. A knock sounded at Emily's bedroom door and she jumped, almost scaring Derek as she rushed around him to pull the door open.

"Emily."

Her eyes wide and her tears still falling, Emily looked up to the man standing in front of her. "Daddy?"


	11. Chapter 11

Derek stood outside the bedroom door, his arms moving from their crossed position over his chest to hang awkwardly by his sides. He had left the younger woman alone with her father but couldn't find the strength to move from his spot in the hallway.

Emily had told him she loved him.

Granted she had been drinking, but the pain he saw in her eyes could only mean she was telling the honest truth. He couldn't leave her alone after admitting something like that.

Knowing that whatever conversation Emily's father had come to have with her wasn't any of his business, the neurosurgeon had stepped outside.

Technically it wasn't his fault that he could hear Emily's voice through the door.

A few times the other roommates of the house had passed him in the hallway, either running off to go to the bathroom, or Izzie stealing a condom from Meredith's room. When they shot him the same confused look, Derek shook his head. If they started talking, Emily would know he was out there trying to listen in.

"Do you think she doesn't know you're out here?"

The neurosurgeon almost jumped out of his skin. "Do you all do that?" he breathed, a hand to his chest.

Meredith grinned. She had heard George scared him only minutes before and needed to come up and do it for herself.

"Lower your voice," Derek almost pleaded.

"What are you even doing out here?"

The older man stood straighter. "I'm not listening in." Fixing one of the buttons on his shirt, Derek made sure to look directly into the younger woman's interrogating blue eyes. "Emily already had a lot to drink and I didn't want her to be alone."

Meredith's eyes narrowed. "Isn't her father in there?"

"I'm just here for support," he let her know.

The sound of the doorknob had both Derek and Meredith turning to look, watching as their friend's father stepped out of the room.

Meredith could hear her friends cries from inside the bedroom, and quickly she stepped toward the older man. "Would you like a drink, sir?"

Derek didn't wait to watch Meredith leading Emily's father down the stairs before walking back into the bedroom.

She was sitting on the edge of her bed, her legs hanging off and her butt sliding down the covers, with her hands covering her face. He knew when he was upset the best thing to do was leave him alone, but after Emily revealing how she felt Derek wasn't sure what the younger woman would want.

"Emily?" he whispered. Noticing the way the intern's body stiffened at his voice, and he slowly took a step back. "Do you want me to leave?"

Sniffling, Emily shook her head. Her hands came away from her face so she could wipe her tears.

"What can I do?"

The brunette shuffled back on the bed a little when the surgeon stepped closer to her. She stuttered gently, her tears covering the words she wished to say, and she shook her head. "I need to pack," Emily husked.

Derek frowned as he watched the younger woman stand from the bed and slowly make her way to the dresser against the opposite wall. "Emily?"

"Can you help me, please?"

The ambassador's daughter felt her nose scrunch as she sniffled once more, not paying attention to the older man as he walked toward her. She focused as much as she could on taking the shirts from her drawer and setting the on the bed. "I need my bag from my closet." She cursed herself for the crack in her voice, but ignored it and pushed back the tears that were welling.

If she weren't drunk, she knew it would be a lot easier to hide what she was feeling.

The neurosurgeon went over to the closet and opened the sliding door, hiding his surprise when he saw a silk nightie over toward the end of the rack. Taking his eyes from it, knowing it wasn't appropriate, Derek knelt on the carpeted floor and moved through the younger woman's array of shoes before finding the duffle bag hidden in the back. "Any shoes I can put in here for you?"

Emily's eyes stung at the soft voice of the older man. "The white sneakers, please." Turning, she crossed her arms and watched as Derek placed them in her bag. "And the black heels?"

Derek turned to see a new set of tears leaving Emily's eyes.

She waved him off when he stood and made his way toward her, hiccupping when she tried to take in a breath. "I'm fine," she huffed, reluctantly looking up into those questioning blue eyes.

He waited until he saw something in her eyes break, and he pulled her into a hug.

"My mom died."

Derek held her tight to him, feeling her hands come up and clamp over his shoulders as she started to cry into his shirt. Rubbing his calloused fingers gently against the sweater Emily wore, Derek let her use the material of his shirt to wipe her tears. "What do you need me to do?"

The brunette pulled back, scared brown eyes looking into blue. "Please come with me."

Hearing the door finally open, Cristina and Meredith almost knocked the two doctors down. "What happened?" The blond had led Emily's father down to the party on the main floor, but he quickly told the intern to get his daughter ready; a car would be waiting for her outside.

"I have to go."

Meredith followed her friend down the stairs, taking one of the bags that looked too heavy for the sad woman to hold.

Looking at the man beside her, the cardiothoracic surgeon in training pushed him back so he wouldn't be able to follow her friend down the stairs. "What the hell did you do to her to make her cry?" she growled, hitting the surgeon on the arm.

"Hey!"

Cristina's eyes darkened as she hit him again. "I told you to do what was best for her!"

Derek dropped the bag of Emily's shoes to stop the intern's hands from swinging at him. "Cristina," he said sharply, almost scared when he saw the younger woman's eyes glare up at him, "her mother died."

The brunette's hands almost immediately fell to her sides. "What?"

"Her father came to tell her Ambassador Prentiss suffered a heart attack," he informed her. "She asked me to head with her to New York."

Cristina's eyes bugged. "New York?" Following the older man down the stairs and out of the house, the curly haired woman slapped at his back. "You're both leaving? She can't leave, we're supposed to compete for the sparkle pager this week."

Overhearing her friend's complaint, Meredith turned and glared. "Not the time, Cristina."

"I'm sure I'll be back in a day or so," Derek shrugged. Emily had only just drunkenly confessed what she maybe felt for him; how was he supposed to know how long it would be before she realized it was a mistake and sent him back to Seattle Grace?

"At least let us come with you," Meredith begged her friend, watching as she sat in the back of the car.

Emily looked up with her big brown eyes. "Can you?" Her voice squeaked, new tears forming as the blond quickly settled herself in the backseat.

Cristina watched as the neurosurgeon's face dropped. "It's not like you were going to get any," she huffed. "She's going to a funeral."

Slowly shaking his head, the blue eyed man closed the rest of his friend's bags into the trunk of the car before getting himself in. Buckling up, Derek watched as Emily set her head to the blonde's shoulder and cried, and he sat back, feeling the car start to drive down the street.


	12. Chapter 12

Gnawing tentatively into her bottom lip, the intern couldn't stop herself from looking over to the surgeon sitting beside her father on the plane. She had first sat with her father for take off but quickly changed with the surgeon after trying to talk to Meredith from across the aisle.

With the alcohol wearing off Emily's clear mind was coming back. She wasn't sure what had possessed her to ask Derek along for the ride and if she was honest with herself she wasn't sure if she was ok with him seeing at her most vulnerable.

"What are you thinking about?"

Emily moved her tired eyes to the blonde by her side and shook her head. "Nothing."

Meredith laid her hand over the other intern's, squeezing it lightly. "We should be landing soon."

"He said my mother is still at the hospital," she whispered. Thinking of her mother lying stiff on an examination table had the surgical intern back on the verge of tears. "She'll be at the funeral home by the time we land."

"What was she like?" her friend asked quietly. Others on the plane were fast asleep and she wanted to make sure she didn't wake them, and to make sure that she wasn't broadcasting Emily's family life to the entire cabin. "Your mom."

The ambassador's daughter licked her lips, tasting the salt on her tongue from fallen tears. "She sucked," Emily said quickly. "Ok she didn't suck, but she wasn't the best. When she and my father separated, I stayed with her. The ambassador was strict and stern, and she wasn't one for showing affection."

Meredith's brow furrowed. "You called her 'the ambassador'?"

Emily almost chuckled, smiling softly as she stared at the seat in front of her. "After living with her for so long I got used to her detached ways. She focused a lot more no her business and her political life than her family life, and I understand that. I wasn't a planned child. But I treasured the time with my dad because when I was with him, he would take me to work with him and let me sit in on certain things. My dad made sure that he paid attention to me no matter how busy he was." Looking to her friend, Emily nodded. "There's the ambassador, and then there's daddy."

The blonde by her side blew out a breath. "Honestly it sounds better than my childhood."

"Seriously?"

Meredith shared a sad smile with the other intern. "My dad left my mom and me when I was maybe three. I don't know him at all, and my mom doesn't want to know me."

Emily's eyes squinted as she sat herself up, brushing the tears away from her cheeks. "What do you mean?"

"She always saw her work as more important than me," the blonde shrugged. "After a while you get used to it."

The brown eyed intern licked her lips, nodding. "I get it," she huffed. Looking over the airplane's aisle, Emily let her eyes settled on the man she had fallen for before moving to the restless figure of her father.

Meredith followed her friend's gaze. "Are you afraid of living in his shadow?" she asked quietly. It scared her to no end to only hear about her mother's accomplishments as she progressed through life.

"Not really." Emily looked back to the woman beside her and shook her head. "Both of my parents have had amazing careers, but I know I'm going to have my own. Doctors at Seattle Grace regard my father highly but I already have Chief Webber asking me to scrub in." Giving herself a moment to think, she took a sip of the water one of the flight attendants had given her. "And I know I don't want to specialize in neuro. So there will be Doctor Prentiss who graduated top of his class at Princeton and is a famous neurosurgeon," she smiled, "and there will be Doctor Prentiss who graduated top of her class at Yale and is a famous general surgeon."

"I want general too," Meredith grinned. "There's just something about being able to have a hand in helping any part of someone's body. Much better than a specialist."

The brunette nodded. "I agree."

Hearing the murmurings of the women across the aisle, Derek looked over to see Meredith handing a tissue to the woman he had slept with.

Emily could feel Derek's eyes on her and immediately her shoulders stiffened.

"Can I do anything for you?"

The small moment of levity quickly left the brunette intern, and the heavy feeling that had settled in the pit of her stomach when her father had come to tell her the news returned. "No," Emily almost whispered, "I don't think so." They had to go and visit her mother once they landed, and with everything in her power she wished for the last half hour of their flight to last as long as it could.


End file.
